Nikkei Research's study revealed that the relationship of medical representative (MR) and health care professional (HCP) affects the brand strength of the pharmaceutical company. The survey was held in Japan asking physicians who specialize in either lung cancer/breast cancer/blood cancer.
The Medical Brand Index was derived as the overall brand strength of pharmaceutical companies, measured by considering #1-Necessity, #2-Superiority, #3-Partnership (between the MR on treatment), #4-Reliability, #5-Likeliness to Recommend. Chugai was the only company that appeared in the top three list of every category, missing only the lung cancer category to be ranked 2nd place while being the top in the rest.
Fig.1 Medical.Brand index
The blood cancer category had the closest competition. There was only half a point of differentiation between the 1st place and the 3rd place.
The whole study includes the results of each company (Astellas Amgen, AstraZeneca, AbbVie, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Celgene, Chugai, Daiichi Sankyo, Eisai, Eli Lilly, Janssen, MSD, Novartis, Ono, Pfizer, Taiho, Takeda) within each category; lung cancer/breast cancer/blood cancer. Total of 20 questions about awareness, perception, satisfaction, communication channel, desired information, etc.